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Russian bombers approach Alaska for second day in a row

Russian bombers flew near Alaska for the second time in two days Tuesday evening, a day after a pair of them were intercepted by Anchorage-based fighter jets.

Capt. Anastasia Schmidt, a spokeswoman for the Alaskan Command, said Tuesday's flights involved a pair of Tu-95 Bear bombers – the same type of Russian propeller-driven aircraft flown Monday.

She didn't immediately have specifics on where the bombers flew or when on Tuesday the response to their presence occurred.

"No fighters were launched; an E-3 (Sentry AWACS plane) was launched," Schmidt said. "Any time we detect an unidentified aircraft or something in the airspace, we base our reaction on what we deem as appropriate."

Schmidt said both Monday and Tuesday's flights were incursions of the Air Defense Identification Zone around Alaska, in which aircraft approaching the state from overseas are asked to identify themselves and state their intentions, rather than sovereign U.S. airspace within the 12-mile territorial limit extending from the Alaska landmass.

"At no time did Russian aircraft cross into our airspace," Schmidt said. "They were in international airspace the whole time."

Lt. Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, the Alaskan Command's head, said Tuesday that F-22 Raptor fighters were scrambled Monday from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage to intercept the first pair of bombers about 100 miles southwest of Kodiak Island.

American and Russian pilots waved at each other, Wilsbach said, but didn't have any voice communications before the bombers turned around and headed back to Russia.

Air Force fighters scramble from Anchorage to intercept Russian bombers

Two Anchorage-based fighter jets intercepted a pair of Russian bombers Monday night off Kodiak Island in what an Air Force commander called the first such flight seen near Alaska in nearly two years.

Lt. Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, head of both the Alaskan Command and the Alaska NORAD Region, said Tuesday that the detection and intercept of the Tu-95 Bear bombers took place over the course of about two hours from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday.
"I can't go into all of the details on how we detected them, but we did detect them," Wilsbach said. "We were tracking them basically paralleling the Aleutian Islands roughly 100 miles to the south."

In response, two F-22 Raptor jets on standby were launched from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, along with an E-3 Sentry AWACS radar plane. Wilsbach said they were supported by an Alaska Air National Guard KC-135 tanker aircraft launched from Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks.

The F-22s intercepted the Bears about 100 miles southwest of Kodiak, Wilsbach said. The propeller-driven bombers didn't have any external signs of weaponry, and the pilots had no verbal contact.

"There is a procedure where we can talk to them, but generally we don't unless it's some sort of dangerous situation," Wilsbach said. "They waved at one another, but other than that there was no communication."

Both the American and Russian aircraft were flying "in accordance with international airspace and international law," Wilsbach said. The F-22s stayed with the Bears as they turned southwest back toward Russia, and the bombers were tracked on radar until they left U.S.-monitored airspace.

Monday's incident, Wilsbach said, was an indicator of the value of the controversial Northern Edge military exercise set for this summer in the Gulf of Alaska, because it includes simulated intercepts similar to the one involving the Bears.

"The response that our crews executed last night was extremely proficient," Wilsbach said. "It's not an easy thing to do: to detect an incursion and launch a response, and get all the pieces in the right places and get your aircraft back safely."

Russia has periodically sent bombers toward Alaska for years despite the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, routinely prompting intercepts by JBER-based Air Force jets. In recent years those flights had been on an uptick, leading NORAD's commander to tell senators in 2015 that they had reached levels not seen since the end of the Cold War.

Earlier this month, Russia, an ally of Syria, condemned President Donald Trump's cruise-missile strike on a Syrian airfield in retaliation for numerous civilian deaths in a Syrian chemical-weapons attack.

Wilsbach said Alaska hasn't seen any similar Russian flights since July 4, 2015, when Bear bombers were intercepted after approaching Alaska and California. The Alaskan Command hadn't seen any reports of Monday's flight in Russian media or any indication of the reason the bombers were sent.

"I have the same question you do as to the why part," Wilsbach said. "I can't answer that — only the Russians can answer that."

Mookie War Creed"I am the Sword of my Family and Shield of my Nation. If sent, I will crush everything you have built, burn all that you love, and kill every one of you."
Welcome to dar al harab -dar al kufre.

Gentle reminder: It is entirely possible to think that generalizations are true and to judge each real live person you meet as an individual

It's an F-8 Crusader and the photo is from 1974. The carrier is the USS Oriskany (CVA-34), which was decommissioned for the second and final time in 1976.

Last edited by Dozdoats; 04-19-2017 at 10:01 PM.

The wonder of our time isn’t how angry we are at politics and politicians; it’s how little we’ve done about it. - Fran Porretto
-http://bastionofliberty.blogspot.com/2016/10/a-wholly-rational-hatred.html

There nothing there on that island, and there is in the upper part of Alaska two islands both called Diomede and Little Diomede belongs to U.S. the other only three miles or so away belongs to Russia.
I can tell you its all to easy to wander into russia air space or waters or the other way around.

Pretty standard stuff. Russia and the United States are very close in that area. In fact the whole Bearing Sea is one big tag match. Include the NORKS in that mix. I remember pulling alongside an Ivan Intel Ship and they had a giant 4x8 give us the Bird they would put up. Sometimes we would moon them but that Bearing Sea breeze will turn you blue.

"They wanted to be left alone to face challenges head-on, and to prosper from their own hard work and ingenuity...harsh country tends to produce strong people."-John Erickson

Russian military aircraft have approached Alaska daily for four consecutive days since Monday, U.S. officials said, including two bombers intercepted Thursday night off northern Alaska by U.S. and Canadian fighter jets.

The latest intercept of two Tu-95 Bear aircraft occurred at about 7 p.m., according to a statement from NORAD spokeswoman MaryAnna Clemons.

"Two Alaskan-based F-22 Raptors and two Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornet fighters intercepted and visually identified two Russian (Tu-95s) flying in the Alaskan and the Canadian Air Defense Identification Zones near the northern coast of Alaska and Canada," Clemons said Friday. "At no time, however, did the aircraft enter sovereign airspace for either the U.S. or Canada."

The F-22s that made Thursday's intercept were launched from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, according to Alaskan Command spokeswoman Capt. Anastasia Schmidt.

Pairs of Tu-95s also entered Alaska's air defense zone — in which aircraft nearing the coast from overseas are asked to identify themselves and state their intentions — southwest of Kodiak on Monday night and off Alaska's western coast Tuesday evening.

A pair of JBER-based F-22s, supported by an E-3 Sentry AWACS radar plane and a KC-135 tanker aircraft, intercepted the Monday flight, but only an E-3 was launched to track Tuesday's bombers.

On Wednesday night, Clemons said, a Russian Il-38 maritime patrol aircraft also entered the Alaska air defense zone. Neither she nor Schmidt could provide further details on where that flight occurred or the U.S. response to it, citing a need to protect operational security.

Schmidt didn't know when Alaska last saw four Russian incursions in four consecutive days, but noted that this week's general amount of activity wasn't unprecedented.

"The last time we saw higher levels of flights like this was 2014," Schmidt said.

The wonder of our time isn’t how angry we are at politics and politicians; it’s how little we’ve done about it. - Fran Porretto
-http://bastionofliberty.blogspot.com/2016/10/a-wholly-rational-hatred.html

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